Outdoors, action, adventure

Skydiver survives 3,000 foot plunge after parachute tangles

A skydiver must have had her guardian angel jumping with her, surviving after plummeting 3,000 feet to the ground when her parachute failed to deploy properly.

The Sun reports that Lareece Butler, 26, escaped with a broken leg, concussion and bruises after plunging to the Earth as her boyfriend watched from the ground in horror.

Butler was on a training course at EP Skydivers in King
William's Town, located in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.

She leaped from a plane with a parachute that was supposed to open automatically, but it suffered problems within seconds of exiting the aircraft.

"It should have all run smoothly but she exited the plane in an unusual and unstable position," said skydive manager Joos Vos. "This caused the parachute leads to become entangled. Although the parachute did partially inflate, it was rotating and becoming more entangled as she dropped."

Vos added that the novice skydiver is very lucky to be alive. "She had been trained to use the emergency procedure but unfortunately she did not and instead fell towards the ground."

Butler remains in intensive care where doctors said she was in a stable condition.

"The doctor said it was nothing but divine intervention, nothing short of a miracle," said Butler's stepfather, Victor Peterson.

-- Kelly Burgess

Photo: A skydiver (not Butler) floats back down to Earth. Credit: Los Angeles Times